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Seeing and hearing conversations

Most experts say watching television isn’t necessarily a good thing, but in the case of learning a language, I think it’s an excellent resource. You can obtain free videos and CDs in the language you want to learn. Whether it’s learning Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, learning to speak German, French, or Spanish; you should be able to find CDs, Cassettes, Videos, and/or DVDs at your local library.

Here are some “rules” I try to adhere to when listening to the conversations

• Don’t try to translate as you’re listening. This has been one of my biggest obstacles to overcome. It slows your conversational ability because you take more time to translate whatever you hear in the foreign language into English.
• Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything that’s being said. If you’re looking at a video you can usually get the gist of what’s being said by the actions taking place on the screen. That helps in the retention because you learn better if you’re able to “see” what the words/phrases mean.
• For CDs and Cassettes, simply having the conversation playing in the background as you do something else can be a benefit. You will subconsciously pick up some things.

Some places to find good videos and CDs and cassettes are in the public library. Also, for those who want to learn Spanish and have cable or satellite there are a few channels that cater to Spanish-speakers such as Telemundo and Galavision. In some instances, you can listen to an alternate track that is spoken in Spanish for a number of TV shows you would normally watch. Try watching an NBA game while listening to it being announced in Spanish!

A number of DVDs for movies you would normally watch in English have alternate tracks.

You can even rent foreign language movies. I’ve picked up a number of martial-arts movies and turned off the sub-titles in order to hear and see the actors in their native language.

Do you have any other suggestions for things that were particularly helpful to you learning another language? Just click on the “Contact Us” link below and let us know. We may do an article on the suggestions you provide! (with full credit and disclosure given of course!)